



Book 



MEMORIAL 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SENATE 



UPON THE DEATH OF 



HON. MILTON HEIDELBiDCH, 



LATE A SENATOR FROM THE THIRTEENTH DISTRICT 



FRG 



PHILOSOPH'CAl SOCIET/ 

WAgHjNG TON. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 



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HARRISBURG, PA.: 

HAERISBCBG PUBLISHING CO.. STATE PRINTER. 
1909. 



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RESOLUTION. 



In the Senate. 
April 9, 1909. 
Resolved (if the House of Representatives concur), That one thousand 
(1,000) copies of the proceedings of the memorial services, held in honor 
of the late Honorable Milton Heidelbaugh, be printed for the use of the 
Senate. 

HARMON M. KEPHART, 
Chief Clerk of the Senate. 
The foregoing resolution concurred in April 9, 1909. 

THOMAS H. GARVIN, 
Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives. 
Approved— The 13th day of May, A. D. 19U9. 

EDWIN S. STUART. 



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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SENATE 



UPON THE DEATH OF 



HON. MILTON HEIDELBAUGH. 



In the Senate, 
Tuesday, March 23, 1909. 

On motion of Senator Homsher, the following resolution was twic'^ 
read, considered and agreed to, viz: 

Resolved, That a committee of eight members of the Senate be ap- 
pointed to draft suitable resolutions on the death of the late Senator, 
Milton Heidelbaugh, who died on February ten, one thousand nine hun- 
dred and eight, and present such resolutions at a special meeting to be 
held on Tuesday, March thirty, one thousand nine hundred ,and nine, at 
three o'clock post meridian. 

By subsequent action of the Senate the date of the special session was 
fixed for Tuesday, April six, at three o'clock post meridian. 



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MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS AND ADDRESSES. 



In the Senate, 
Tuesday, April 6, 1909. 
Afternoon Session. 

Pursuant to adjournment the Senate was called to order at 
three o'clock post meridian, Lieutenant-Governor Murphy in 
the chair. 

PRAYER. 

Prayer was offered by the Chaplain, Reverend J. Wesley 
Sullivan, as follows: 

Called to such services as these, O Lord, the thought 
comes to our mind that : 

"Art is long and time is lleeting. 

And our hearts, though stout and brave. 
Still like muffled drums, are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave." 

We think of those who leave us and we are led to ask the 
question, "Shall we gather at the river, the beautiful river 
that flows by the throne of God?" thus instilling into our 
hearts the hope of the great future as we realize those who 
are leaving us on every hand. As we come into this hour of 
service we come with thoughts of joy rather than of sorrow 
at the thought of the life that was lived; in this noble man 
who lived for home, State and for the Nation, and who de- 
voted his life to business, to instruction and to service of 
God. We come with these memories of blessedness. We 
would remember in our prayer this afternoon those who are 

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MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



left to mourn. We ask Tli}- l)lessini;' upon the widow and 
upon the cliildren who think of this one who has left them. 
We thank Thee to-day with them for the comfort that comes 
into their hearts of the memory of this Hfe. As the days of 
separation and loneHness grow may there come a joy and 
peace in the memories of this beloved life. To those who are 
associated in the temporal things may there come to our 
lives new inspiration, new desires to live grander and nobler 
lives, so that when w-e come to the end it will be with the 
hope of "gathering at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful 
river that flows by the throne of God," and we ask all this 
with the forgiveness of all our sins in Jesus Christ, our 
Saviour's name. Amen. 

Mr. HOMSHER. Mr. President, by the direction of the 
committee appointed to draft resolutions expressing the 
sentiments of the Senate on the death of the Honorable Mil- 
ton Heidelbaugh, I offer the following resolutions: 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Whereas, the Honorable Milton Heidelbaugh, a member 
of the Senate of Pennsylvania, from Lancaster county, was 
called from the scene of his earthly labors and achievements, 
February ten. one thousand nine hundred and eight; and 

Whereas, in his lifetime he rendered to his native county 
and the State and Nation long and important services as a 
citizen, as a soldier in the civil war, as member of the Leg- 
islature, and of this Senate ; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Senate of Pennsylvania, at this session, 
set apart in his memory, give expression of- the loss it has 
sustained in the death of Senator Heidelbaugh, and of its 
recognition of his abilities and services; and 

Resolved, That to his family, bereaved of his kindly and 
manly presence, the Senate extends its profoundest sym- 



HON. MIIvTON HEIDELBAUGH. 



pathy and prays for them that consolation which can come 
only in bereavements like this from Him who doeth all 
things well ; and joins with them in the satisfaction of the 
memory of his attainments and achievements; and 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, with the action 
of the Senate thereon, duly engrossed and attested, be for- 
warded to his family. 

JOHN G. HOMSHER, 

JOHN E. FOX, 

e'. M. HERBST, 

WILLIAM C. SPROUL. 

DANIEL P. GERBERICH; 

A. E. SISSON, 

A. G. DEWALT. 



10 MEMORIAL SKRVICRS. 



ADDRESSES. 

Air. IIOAISIII'.R. Mr. President, Senator Alilton Tleid- 
elbaugh was one of the most widely-known and best-liked 
men in Lancaster connty. I believe, and have freqnently 
said it in his lifetime, that, leaving- ont of the (|nestion all 
political affiliations and intitiences, he w^ould have received 
at an election as many votes as any man in the county. It 
means much to say that, and comparatively few men attain 
such a distinction. It is more than ordinary success in life, 
and it betokens the true politician. None can arrive at such 
a success, except by friendly devotion to the assistance of 
others or to the work of conducting and improving public 
affairs. 

It is one of the happiest and most beneficent features of 
our elective system of government that it brings such men 
to the front. Like in every other sphere of usefulness, worth 
is sure to be recognized. The man, who unselfishly, con- 
scientiously and intelligently works for the benefit of his fel- 
low^ men, is rewarded with the good will and respect of the 
people. 

He was a son of John Heidelbaugh, and was born on a 
farm in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
April nineteen, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three. 
He attended the public schools and Maple Grove Academy 
until he was eighteen years of age, when he became a clerk 
in a store at Georgetown, in his native township. During 
the war, he enlisted in Company C, Fiftieth Regiment, Penn- 
sylvania Emergency Troops. After that he taught school 
for three years and then went back to clerk in a store. After- 
wards, in partnership with William S. Ferree, he went into 
the general merchandise business at White Hall store, in his 
native township. This was in the village of Nickel Mine, in 
the midst of the great industry that was then the largest 
and most productive, if not the only nickel mine in the Uni- 
ted States. Five years later he bought out the entire busi- 



HON. MILTON HEIDELBAUGH. 11 



ness and kept the store for fifteen years longer. Then he 
went to farming"; after that took up the lumber business, in 
which he was largely engaged at the time of his death. 

He always took an active interest in public affairs, doing 
whatever came to his hand to do. He served as auditor and 
school director of his native township ; was elected to the 
Legislature in one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, 
and afterwards in one thousand eight hundred and ninety- 
three, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, one 
thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, one thousand 
eight hundred and ninety-nine ; and in one thousand nine 
hundred and one was elected to the Senate, and re-elected 
in one thousand nine hundred and five, and would no doubt 
have been re-elected to the Senate again had he lived. 

At the time of his death he was an elder in the First Pres- 
byterian church at Lancaster, having long before connected 
himself with that denomination at Octoraro, in his home 
township. 

Such then was his lifework. A farmer's boy, a clerk in a 
store, a soldier when his country called for men to put down 
the Rebellion, a school teacher, a merchant himself, a far- 
mer, a lumberman, a deacon in the church, a school director, 
a member of the Legislature, and a member of the Senate. 
Amid such labors and environment he spent his busy and 
useful life. Ever ready to assist others in their private af- 
fairs, or public enterprises, he became one of the foremost 
citizens of the county. 

He was a man of more than ordinary ability, with the 
happy faculty of accomplishing things more by gentle and 
easy good management than by any great show of earnest 
or forceful endeavor. In stature he was of tall and splendid 
physique and in manner he was a very genial and pleasant 
gentleman. 

And then, in the midst of his achievements and enterprises, 
and when the future seemed yet full of work for him by the 
hard-earned wisdom learned by experience, he was suddenly 
called hence. 

On Monday. February tenth, one thousand nine hundred 



12 MEMORIAL SP:RVICES. 

and eight, in apparently robust health and strength, he was 
about his work as usual, and retired at nine o'cloek in the 
evening". Half an hour later he was taken ill, and at eleven 
o'clock he passed away. 

Seldom was a death announced that caused more universal 
sorrow in the county. His friends and 1)rother Senators 
came from the length and breadth of the State and laid him 
gently away in beautiful Greenwood, overlooking the wind- 
ing Conestoga. 

It is hard to think that he is gone. Let the kind memories 
of his life inspire us to a still greater devotion to the good of 
the people and the State, and the lesson of his sudden death 
admonish us to act as if each day may be our last on earth. 

Mr. HERBST. Mr. President, Senator Heidelbaugh 
and I entered the Senate of Pennsylvania at the same 
time. The news of his sudden death came to me as a severe 
shock. Though knowing that he at times suffered from 
stomach trouble, his appearance and vigor when we parted 
at the end of the session of one thousand nine hundred and 
seven seemingly indicated many more years of life and ac- 
tivity. 

When I recall the many fellow-members of Heidelbaugh 
and myself who have crossed "over the river and rest in the 
shade of the trees" of the undiscovered country from whose 
bourne no traveler returns, I am lost in awe and amazement. 
"In the midst of life we are in death." "All fiesh is as grass, 
and all the glcry of man as the flower of the grass. In the 
morning it flourisheth and groweth, in the evening it is cut 
down and wathereth." "Why should the spirit of mortal 
be proud ?" Why should we hold these heads of ours so 
proudly and boastfully erect, when in a brief time, no one 
knows even how shortly, they will be naught but what the 
poet has so graphically described : 

"Behold this ruin! 'Twas a skull 

Once of ethereal spirit full; 

This narrow cell was life's retreat, 

This space was thoug-ht's mysterious seat. 

What beauteous visions filled this spot, 



HON. MILTON HEIDELBAUGH. 13 

What dreams of pleasure long forgot 
Nor love, nor hope, nor joy, nor fear 
Has left one trace of record here! 
* * * * * * * 

Avails it whether bare or shod 

These feet the path of duty trod? 

If from the bowers of ease they fled, 

To seek affliction's humble shed; 

If grandeur's guilty bribe they spurned 

And home to virtue's cot returned — 

These feet with angel's wings shall vie, 

And tread the palace of the sky." 

Suffice it to say on my part that Senator Hiedelbaugh was 
a success in life. Others no doubt will be better able to give 
an extended sketch of his career, as farmer's boy, school 
teacher, soldier, country merchant and lumber dealer. In 
political life he, too, made good, serving his district in var- 
ious local offices, and as a member of the Legislature dur- 
ing five terms, and died, so to speak, in the harness during 
his second term in this Senate. Had he lived, he would no 
doubt have been re-elected. 

Our personal friendship started at the very beginning of 
the session of one thousand nine hundred and one, and con- 
tinued to the end. We were near neighbors as to seats in 
this body, and for several sessions had rooms in the same 
hotel. Not until memory shall sink in the midnight pool of 
oblivion can I forget the many bright and cheerful social 
hours that I have spent with Senator Heidelbaugh and his 
colleague. Senator Stober ; the good laughs I have had over 
the droll remarks of the deceased, and the lively and warm- 
hearted discussions, between these two friends of such differ- 
ent natural temperament. Two years ago the Senator and 
I were together a great deal, and thrown into intimate con- 
tact by long trips in visiting State Normal Schools, and this 
connection only served to increase my regard for Senator 
Heidelbaugh's kindly, gentlemanly character. In short, we 
were true friends. 

"And such a friendship ends not but with life." 

Senator Heidelbaugh was faithful to his duties and his 
friends. He was a thorough organization man. He was a 



14 MEMORIAL SERVICES. 

useful Senator, and a chairman of an important committee 
who never lost his temper when others were in anger. His 
interest in the education of the young- was a notable trait, 
and for years he gave his time and attention to the improve- 
ment of our public and normal schools. 

The sweetness, simplicity and honesty of his nature are 
the pride of his friends, and his heritage for their emulation. 

Another link in the golden chain of Senatorial friendshi]) 
is gone. We miss you, friend Heidelbaugh. May our loss 
have proven your gain. May you now be at rest where the 
flowers ever bloom, where the grass is ever green, where the 
birds ever sing, and where the ''ended centuries are ever 
in the springtime of an eternal life." 

"There are no dead; we fall asleep, 
To waken where they never weep. 
We close our eyes on pain and sin, 
Our breath ebbs out, but life flows in." 

I esteem it a great privilege to add this little spray to the 
wreath in loving remembrance of Senator Heidelbaugh, 
which his associates today weave. 

Mr. SISSON. Mr. President, We do not wish to come 
here and dismiss in a few summary paragraphs the character 
of one who has filled such a prominent part in connection 
with the legislation enacted by the Legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania, during the last eighteen years, as has the Senator to 
whose memory we do honor to-day, one holding such a high 
place in the hearts of all who knew him. Although the time 
does not require anything elaborate and adequate, but rather 
forbids it, some brief sentences of respect and esteem may 
be indulged to the sentiment we entertain. 

Senator Heidelbaugh and myself entered the Senate to- 
gether with the beginning of the session of one thousand 
nine hundred and one, and during the first and fourth sessions 
that followed we occupied adjoining seats. While in private 
life he was a business and not a professional man, yet his 
service of five terms in the House, before entering the Sen- 
ate, gave him an experience and training that made him 
a most valuable member of this bodv, and his advice and 



HON. MILTON HEIDELBAUGH. 15 

counsel were of great value to an associate fortunate enough 
to have his good will and wise enough to improve the oppor- 
tunity afforded by that condition. He very rarely missed a 
session of the Senate during the one special and four regular 
sessions that he was a member here, and his ability to grasp 
and understand the scope and effect of proposed legislation 
rendered his services in the Senate of inestimable value to the 
Commonwealth. He was deeply concerned for the people 
of the district he represented, and no interest of theirs was 
overlooked or forgotten, and he was efTlicient in producing 
results. During the whole time of his service in the Senate he 
was chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining, and, 
as such, the demands upon his time, judgment, patience and 
skill were very great, as that period covered troublesome 
times for mining people in this Commonwealth. 

He so skillfully managed and adjusted the differences of 
persons, whose interests were conflicting in legislation 
sought, as to make all his friends, and all regarded him as 
a friend of theirs. 

While but slightly acquainted with his family and less with 
his neighbors, I know that to him his family ties were very 
sacred, and it meant something for a man to be his neigh- 
bor, and more to be his friend. 

Although he was conservative, and not inclined to "dull 
his pa^m with entertainment cf each new-hatched, unfledged 
comrade," yet he was not so reserved but that a friend, whom 
he respected and, with whom he occasionally came in con- 
tact, could not fail to discover his splendid qualities of heart. 

The welfare of the common people was near and dear to 
him. 

Although a very successful business man, he derived more 
pleasure from relating his early experiences as a boy upon 
the farm, and later as a school teacher, than in referring to 
his business successes, and his keen knowledge of human 
nature enabled him to read and picture the people of whom 
he talked in an interesting way and true to life. 

Senator Heidelbaugh was a member of the board of trust- 
ees of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, at Erie, at the time of 



16 MEMORIAL, SERVICES. 

his death. A week or ten days prior to that event I attend- 
ed a reception given at Erie to that board, and Senator Hcid- 
elbaugh was present. Speeches were incident to the event, 
and the Senator heartily joined in the wit, good will, and 
good fellowshi]) of the occasion. The affair was a most en- 
joyable one, and J little thought that it was the last of the 
many similar occasions we had cnjc^yed together. 

The board having finished its business, he called at my 
office the following afternoon, and finding that I was in court 
he came over to the court house. He waited for about an 
hour until I had finished a case I was engaged in trying, 
and then we spent the balance of the afternoon together, 
until he took his train in the evening for home. I shall 
never forget the pleasant hours I spent with him that after- 
noon. We lived over again many of our experiences in the 
Senate, and the faces of our former colleagues here passed 
in pleasing review. While his mind still entertained plans 
for the future, he appeared at peace with all the world, and 
when a few days afterward I learned that he was dead, I felt 
that as I saw him last he seemed like one who had lived a 
well-rounded, useful and well-spent life, and was ready and 
content to respond to any summons that the future held for 
him, whether to new duties and responsibilities in life, or 
to the final summons of his Maker. 

Mr. TUSTIN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Fox, 
I desire to present the following tribute to our late brother, 

Honorable Milton Keidelbaugh : 

Moved by that same spirit of social unrest which has ever 
actuated the Anglo-Saxon breast with the westward march 
of civilization, a band of sturdy German peasants left their 
home in the mountain fastness of the Fatherland two hun- 
dred years ago finally settled amid the fertile valleys of 
Southeastern Pennsylvania. With them they brought the lan- 
guage and customs of their race, its stubborn determination, 
its deep piety, its reverence for home and paternal institu- 
tions and its distrust of untried conditions through fear of 
unknown ills. Here they worked and prospered until the 



HON. MILTON HEIDELBAUGH. 17 

land became the garden of the nation and its sons and daugh- 
ters famed for their sterhng integrity, courage of then- con- 
victions and love for their land of adoption coupled with 
their mother tongue. 

Conservative in their manner of thought and action they 
sought no control in wider fields of government but were 
content to travel their paths of daily toil and weekly devotion 
until hours of national peril demanded their action, and then, 
when rose in them the spirit which for centuries had watched 
the Rhine, history recorded achievements which recalled the 
deeds of valor of their noble ancestors told by Tacitus and 
Livy. 

Of this race and kind was Milton Heidelbaugh, born of 
a pious, scholarly and aggressive line. His early life was 
spent amid all the protecting environment of a typical Lan- 
caster home, his early education obtained in the typical Lan- 
caster county school and there again presiding as the typical 
school master. He entered in the exploitation of the natural 
resources of his own and adjoining county and made his suc- 
cessful life work. 

His ability and standing in his community demanded of 
him public service, and in eighteen hundred and eighty-five 
he was elected to the Legislature, from his county and served 
again in that House from one thousand eight hundred and 
nlnetv-three until one thousand nine hundred and three, 
when he was elected to this body, of which he was an hon- 
ored member until his death. 

As a man and officer he exemplified all the best qualities 
of his race and kind. He was stalwart, honest, truthful and 
ever watchful of the best interests of his constituents. At- 
tentive to his duty he was ever at. his post and shirked no 
labor, and believed no time ill spent in investigating the 
matters coming before him for deliberation. He was faith- 
ful to h.is party, faithful to his friends and faithful to the 
traditions of liis fathers. 

While such occasions as these are ahvays sad, we temper 
our sense of bereavement with the kind and pleasant recol- 
lection of the noble characteristics of the honored dead. 



18 MEMORIAL SERVICES. 

While we regret his loss, we rejoice in the memory of the 
life which he has left ns, and are glad with him when he 
met death full front in the spirit of his forefathers, he only 
laid aside his earthl_\" trappings to enter into a well earned 
rest. 

The question being, 

Will the Senate agree to the adoption of the resolutions? 

Mr. HOMSHER. Mr. President, I move the adoption 
of the resolutions. 

Mr. TUSTIN. Mr. President, I second the motion. 

The PRESIDENT. On this the roll will be called by the 
clerk. 

The roll was called by the clerk as follows : 

YEAS. 

Messrs. Dewalt, Blewitt, Campbell, Cochran, Crawford, 
Crow, Dewalt, Dimeling, Fox, Gerberich, Grim, Hall, Har- 
per, Hays, Herbst, Homsher, Hulings, James, Jamison, Key- 
ser, Kline. Klinedinst, Kurtz, Langfitt, Manbeck, Martin, 
McConnell, Mcllhenny, McNichol, Miller (Northampton), 
Miller (Bedford), Murphy, Riley, Rowland, Shields, Sisson, 
Snyder, Sproul, Templeton, Thomson, Tustin, Vare, Wal- 
ton, Weingartner, Wertz, Wilbert and Wolf. — 47. 

NAYS. 
None. 

ABSENT OR NOT VOTING. 
Messrs. Catlin, Durham and Rodgers. — 3. 
A majority of all the Senators having voted "aye," the 
resolutions were adopted. 



HON. MIIvTON HE:IDELBAUGH. 19 

ADJOURNMENT. 

Mr. KEYSER. Mr. President, I move that the Senate 
take a recess until four o'clock this afternoon. 

Mr. HERBST. Mr. President, I second the motion. 

The question being, 

Will the Senate agree to the motion ? 
It was agreed to. 

Whereupon, 
At three fifty post meridian the Senate took a recess until 
four o'clock post meridian. 




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